Friday, January 29, 2016

A buckeye is not a bug...

But it doesn't stop me from thinking of these Buckeye Beauties as bugs.

I think it's the triangles - they look like wings to me, and the dark squares lined up like that look like a segmented body.
For whatever reason, I mentally refer to these blocks as 'the bugs.'
This was one of the blocks that I'd decided not to do for RSC, but then saw a quilt made with them and fell in love. So, my compromise is that I'm doing them for RSC2016 and RSC2017 - they're 4" blocks (finished) so it's going to take a buttload of them to make a quilt bigger than a handkerchief anyway. Two years ought to just about do it. Three at the outside...

And they work just dandy for leader/enders for Big Twinkle, here.

Woohoo! I'm starting to sew the blocks together! (I think I'm still short a couple of the small sashing stars, but I've got pieces cut for more, so I'll make them as needed, once the dust settles a bit.) I've got the two rows on the left assembled, sashing and all. (The blocks that are folded back are leaving a space open for me to walk as I pick up and lay down blocks, without stepping on anything pretty.)

What slows the process down is the fact that I managed to pick directional prints for both the sashing pieces and the center squares of the big stars, so I have to double and triple check every placement before stitching. (The star centers are not only up/down directional, but left/right directional also, as I determined after looking closer. There's a darker shading on one side of those 'beads' in the print.)

You can see that the star on the bottom left of that last picture is going to have to be rotated widdershins to line up with the rest of its buddies. (On the plus side, as long as I get it right it helps me keep track of which end is the top of the strip and which is the bottom.)
And it's really important to line up all those directionals just so. Our family runs rather heavily to the anal-retentive/OCD side. Put us in a room with a crooked-hanging painting, and we'll all start to twitch within minutes. Probably in sync.
No way anyone would ever get any sleep under this thing if one of those lines was going the wrong way...

Those Buckeye blocks do look more like butterflies or bugs than buckeyes. Your twinkling stars quilt is gorgeous - and I can see why you would want to take the time to make it as carefully as possible. I loved the visual of a family twitching in unison at an sideways block! I live in an older house and everything is not level. I have a painting above the mantel, and when it is lined up with the mantel, it isn't lined up with the ceiling. People are constantly trying to fix it before they realize that aligning it one way messes it up the other way.

Well, you are definitively not going for Grandma willy-nilly-quilt look. So much work and attention to details. It is gorgeous, just GOOOORRRRGEEEOUS!! The fabric used recalls Grandma's quilt but the attention to details recalls Gayle's quilts. Fantastic. Enjoy the process, it is part of the fun after all. I LOVE the Buckeye Beauty block and have it on my to-do list since forever. Would like to do it bigger than 4 inches though lol. Maybe I could start working on it and we can quilt a-long. ;^)

Twinkle Stars is really coming along, you have so much done! You always make me laugh at the quilter's OCD that creeps into all of our design considerations. Of course no one could ever sleep under a quilt with a block turned wrong-way!

Couple weeks ago Smokey was putting up the transmitter for our cell phone multiplier so that I have cell phone coverage as I sit in my chair in the living room. He had to run its cord along the top edge of wall right next to the ceiling. I came home just as he finished. We both stood back to admire his (extremely tidy) work and remarked that he needed to redo the little thingies that held the cord -- they were unevenly spaced. I tend toward OCD/anal about things, and he is the opposite -- except about wiring. Then he is OCD/anal to the max.